Buffalo Bills vault into NFL Top 10 ahead of titanic clash with Dallas: Power rankings
The buzzards have stopped circling over the Sean McDermott. Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills — for the moment.
The Bills vaulted back into the NFL's top 10 teams (average ranking of 7.8 this week) after their biggest win to date in a seesaw 2023 season.
Sunday's win forced NFL writers to re-evaluate these Bills.
"James Cook has been a revelation for the Bills" wrote Dalton Miller for Pro Football Network.
"Josh Allen made one of the greatest plays I’ve ever seen when he hit a fadeaway pass over two Chiefs defenders like he was Reggie Miller in the Garden," Jarrett Bailey said for Touchdown Wire.
Besides bringing NFL writers to heel, a tremendous turn of events in Week 14 vastly improved the Bills' shot at making the playoffs.
The team now has a 49% shot of making the playoffs, according to the New York Times playoff simulator. Just two weeks ago, it was 15%.
Here's how the Bills fared in 11 NFL power rankings in Week 15:
USA Today
Bills ranking: 8 (⬆ one spot)
Cowboys ranking: 2 (⬆ two spots)
Bills: Coming off Sunday's win at Kansas City, it seems like the right time to note — despite his flaws — Josh Allen leads the NFL by accounting for 35 TDs (25 passing, 10 rushing). He's just the third quarterback in league history, joining Kyler Murray and Cam Newton, to hit those pass/rush TD totals in one season.
Cowboys: Though they'll still need some help to win the NFC East, particularly during such a tough stretch of the schedule, no doubt at this point that they're playing the best football in the division. And speaking of foot and ball, Brandon Aubrey's remarkable season (perfect on all 30 FG tries) continued in Sunday night's thrashing of the Eagles when he became the first kicker to connect from 59+ yards twice in the same game. Also, HC Mike McCarthy is undefeated without an appendix.
NFL.com
Bills ranking: 10 (⬆ two spots)
Cowboys ranking: 3 (⬆ one spot)
Bills: They might remain 11th in the AFC playoff pecking order, needing to pass four teams ahead of them right now, but the Bills remain a viable playoff contender at 7-6. Yes, Buffalo hosts a red-hot Dallas next week, must go on the road twice more and still has to face the Dolphins and Patriots, who beat the Bills in their first meeting. But the Bills won a game at Arrowhead with Stefon Diggs having a pretty poor game (four catches, 24 yards) by his standards and with the defense being able to finish the game off, something it hasn’t always done this season, even if it required a penalty to wipe out a Chiefs touchdown in the final minute-plus. There’s plenty to gripe about, but Josh Allen made some big throws and James Cook carried the offense with a strong effort. Fifteen touches for him feels too low; Cook needs 20 per game. The Bills might be far from perfect, but they remain dangerous.
Cowboys: For a guy who was on the operating table a few days before, Mike McCarthy looked pretty healthy loping over to call timeout prior to the touchdown that gave Dallas a 24-6 halftime lead over rival Philadelphia. McCarthy called all the right shots in that opening half Sunday night, converting on a 60-yard field goal in the first quarter and successfully pulling off the rare TD-notching challenge at the goal line in the second quarter. Things simmered down after that, but in the end, the Cowboys sent a big message that they are indeed serious contenders for both the NFC East crown and the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC playoffs. This was the quality victory Dallas needed, but the next two are at Buffalo and at Miami, so the work isn't yet done, especially with the Eagles' remaining schedule a lot more favorable.
CBS sports
Bills ranking: 10 (no change)
Cowboys ranking: 2 (⬆ one spot)
Bills: They might have saved their season by beating the Chiefs on the road. Now comes a huge game with the Cowboys. The defense came up big against the Chiefs.
Cowboys: They beat up the Eagles on Sunday night, but face another tough test on the road against the Bills this week. Dak Prescott is pushing hard for the MVP.
Pro Football Talk
Bills ranking: 6 (⬆ five spots)
Cowboys ranking: 3 (⬆ two spots)
Bills: They’re very much alive — and the pressure is off.
Cowboys: Lose the next two (at Buffalo, at Miami), and Sunday night’s win means nothing.
Sports Illustrated
Bills ranking: 10 (⬆ three spots)
Cowboys ranking: 4 (⬆ two spots)
Bills: Lost in the Toney offsides mess was the fact that Buffalo played a solid game against one of the better opponents they’ll face all year. They did so at a time when Sean McDermott desperately needed a victory, especially against a coach, Andy Reid, who has seemed to vex him in critical moments. I don’t know what an end-of-season run would signify to me—I still think a lot of Buffalo’s whole setup needs to be reimagined if they want to get the most out of Josh Allen—but I do think it shows that McDermott still has something of a grasp on the locker room. That’s not nothing.
Cowboys: The NFL season is a series of runs. There are weeks when players feel great and weeks they don’t. There are weeks they feel motivated to slam their bodies into concrete and weeks they don’t. On Sunday, we saw the Cowboys at a peak. The question is—and always has been—whether we will get this in the playoffs against one of two teams (Philadelphia or San Francisco) with a slightly deeper set of personnel.
Touchdown wire
Bills ranking: 6 (⬆ four spots)
Cowboys ranking: 2 (⬆ two spots)
Bills: Josh Allen made one of the greatest plays I’ve ever seen when he hit a fadeaway pass over two Chiefs defenders like he was Reggie Miller in the Garden. The Bills’ defense came up huge in the end, as well. Despite all of the self-inflicted wounds this season, Buffalo has taken a lickin’ but they’ve kept on tickin’.
Cowboys: Rayne Dakota Prescott is your MVP, boys and girls. He leads the NFL in touchdown passes, and since Week 6 he has played as close to flawless football as a quarterback can get with Dallas now sitting at the No. 2 seed with a trip to Buffalo on the horizon.
33rd Team
Bills ranking: 6 (⬆ four spots)
Cowboys ranking: 2 (⬆ two spots)
Bills: The Buffalo Bills have a long way to go to punch their ticket to the postseason, but they took a big step in the right direction with a Week 14 win in Arrowhead. Despite the Bills’ mediocre record, all six of their losses have been by six points or fewer. Four of their wins have come by at least three scores. In essence, the Bills are better than their record indicates. The Bills face two top-five teams down the stretch. They’ll likely need to beat at least one of them to have a chance of making the playoffs.
Cowboys: The Dallas Cowboys made a statement against the Eagles on Sunday night. That was driven by QB Dak Prescott, who is the favorite in the MVP race. He’s in the top two in passing touchdowns, rating, QBR, total EPA and EPA per play. Those numbers, along with team success, are the most consistent factors among MVP winners for more than a decade. Dallas leads the league in points per game (32.4), and it is fourth in points allowed per game (17.9). The Cowboys also have won a staggering eight games by at least three scores. The Cowboys are one contest into their toughest four-game stretch. If Dallas ends up as a Wild Card instead of the NFC East winner, that schedule stretch is the likely culprit.
Pro Football Network
Bills ranking: 9 (⬆ one spot)
Cowboys ranking: 2 (⬆ two spots)
Bills: The Bills are back? They joined many of their competitors at 7-6 after beating the Chiefs out of their bye week. Josh Allen didn’t have his best game of all time, and neither did Patrick Mahomes. It certainly wasn’t a re-enactment of their Divisional Round matchup when they each played some of the best quarterback we’ve ever seen. James Cook has been a revelation for the Bills. However, with the Cowboys and Dolphins remaining on the schedule, Buffalo can’t afford any letdowns.
Cowboys: It was a pretty good Sunday night for the Cowboys. Dak Prescott continued to bolster his MVP case, the running game got going en route to 138 rushing yards, and Dan Quinn’s defense turned Philly over three times. Dallas overtook the Eagles for first place in the NFC East and still has a shot at a first-round playoff bye. But Prescott and Co. have to face the Bills, Dolphins, and Lions over the next three weeks. While the Cowboys are all but assured of a playoff spot, they might have a tough time competing with San Francisco and Philadelphia for the conference’s No. 1 seed.
The Sporting News
Bills ranking: 11 (⬆ five spots)
Cowboys ranking: 2 (⬆ three spots)
Bills: The Bills stayed in the playoff picture and then some by getting their first big statement win since ripping the Dolphins early in the season. They now will try to stay hot to close, including beating Miami again to win the AFC East again.
Cowboys: The Cowboys shot up here after their huge win over the Eagles that gave them first place in the NFC East. Dallas still needs to play Miami, Buffalo and Detroit, however, trying to keep that edge.
Yahoo! Sports
Bills ranking: 5 (⬆ three spots)
Cowboys ranking: 2 (⬆ two spots)
Bills: If the Bills can just make the playoffs, they could advance to the Super Bowl. There's nobody in the AFC they can't beat. The problem is the Bills are still far from a playoff lock even after a win at Kansas City. Their odds are up, but just to 32.6% to make the playoffs at DVOA. They need another upset or two against a very tough remaining schedule. Up next is Dallas.
Cowboys: The Cowboys are still very likely to finish second in the NFC East and get the No. 5 seed (and that seems like it could cost Dak Prescott an MVP award, based on how voters usually decide the award). But now that Dallas has a quality win, it legitimizes the hot streak they've been on. There's a big gap between Dallas and the No. 1 team, but the Cowboys deserve the second spot.
FOX Sports
Bills ranking: 5 (⬆ four spots)
Cowboys ranking: 2 (⬆ three spots)
Bills: The Bills have just a 42% chance of making the playoffs, but I have zero issues ranking them this highly. They’re obviously flawed, particularly on defense. But Josh Allen is playing at a level that will give them a chance in every game, having scored nine touchdowns in his last three outings. If they sneak in, you won’t want to play them.
Cowboys: No win in Week 14 was more impressive than the Cowboys grinding the 10-win Eagles into a fine powder. Dak Prescott didn’t even play his best game and Dallas still managed to win by 20, with offense, defense and special teams all clicking simultaneously. There’s no time for a letdown, though. Beating Josh Allen and the Bills is the next big test.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills vs Cowboys: Buffalo back in Top 10 NFL power rankings, Week 15
